{"id":376896,"date":"2026-09-04T04:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T11:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=376896"},"modified":"2026-09-04T04:40:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T11:40:03","slug":"harry-potter-now-we-know-why-alfonso-cuaron-never-returned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/harry-potter-now-we-know-why-alfonso-cuaron-never-returned\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter: now we know why Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n never returned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Producer David Heyman has finally explained why director Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n didn&#8217;t come back for <em>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire<\/em> after directing <em>Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"HBO Max\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-icon-s\/p\/a2f73840-9b6e-11e6-a5b8-00163ec9f5fa\/2934564554\/hbo-max-logo\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">HBO Max<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/hbo-max.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--0\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"0\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\"><\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/hbo-max.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I had to pick my favorite <em>Harry Potter<\/em> movie, it&#8217;d be, easily, <em>Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/em>, the third installment, where Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n took over from Chris Columbus and let the characters grow up while <strong>pretty much doing whatever he wanted with them, giving us incredible scenes the rest of the saga could only dream of having<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Cuar\u00f3n chose not to return for <em>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire<\/em>, and a lot of us spent years wondering what happened there. All this time later, we finally know.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cuaronus Directorus!<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>\u201cYou bastard.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> That&#8217;s what Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n said when, worn out after making the third film, they suggested he keep going, according to producer David Heyman: <em>\u201cWe asked Alfonso if he wanted to do the fourth one, and he said, \u2018You bastard.\u2019 I think he was wrecked. I look at pictures of Alfonso back then (he\u2019s one of my best friends and my son\u2019s godfather, and I adore him) and he was exhausted.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Really, if you go by Heyman&#8217;s version, there was never much of a chance of getting Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n back: <em>\u201cChris Columbus was like a kid, incredible. With Alfonso, he had nothing left to give. He said no.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, with Chris Columbus already out of the franchise after <em>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets<\/em>, they had to find someone else, and that&#8217;s how Mike Newell ended up joining the saga.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That question is going to come back around when <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/the-original-director-of-harry-potter-clarifies-whether-he-will-return-for-the-television-reboot\" rel=\"noopener\">HBO reaches Season 3<\/a>: <strong>the film was so unique<\/strong>. <em>Harry Potter<\/em>, but with a deflated wand.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Producer David Heyman has finally explained why director Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n didn&#8217;t come back for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire after directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. If I had to pick my favorite Harry Potter movie, it&#8217;d be, easily, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third installment, where Alfonso &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/harry-potter-now-we-know-why-alfonso-cuaron-never-returned\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Harry Potter: now we know why Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n never returned&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9263,"featured_media":376895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-376896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376897,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376896\/revisions\/376897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376896"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=376896"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=376896"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=376896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}